Bekker's Blog by Scott Bekker, Editor in Chief

SQL Server 2008 RTMs

Microsoft's launch channels and processes are so massive, varied and complex that a little explanation is required. RTM in this case means that SQL Server 2008 is available now for MSDN and TechNet subscribers. An evaluation download will be available tomorrow. Meanwhile, SQL Server 2008 Express and SQL Server Compact editions are available now. Pricing is unchanged from SQL Server 2005.

As with any major release, the official release has a kind of loose sense anyway. According to Microsoft, there had already been more than 450,000 downloads by customers and partners of community technology previews, more than 75 large-scale applications are already inn production and nearly 1,000 ISVs are developing applications on the database.

Major new features this time include support for policy-based management, larger-scale data warehousing, geospatial data and additional reporting and analysis services.

We ran a piece in the magazine a few months ago highlighting partner opportunities in the database. It's still available for download here.

Are you seeing new business possibilities with SQL Server 2008? Let me know what you're up to at sbekker@rcpmag.com.